10 Steel Cage Variations That Made Wrestling Fans Scratch Their Heads
The Punjabi Prison with Batista and The Great Khali
10. The Dixie Land Match (TNA)
Created during Dixie Carter’s run as TNA’s top on screen villain, this match started as a standard steel cage bout with WWE style escape rules but did not end when a wrestler exited the cage because the stipulation abruptly switched and forced both competitors to sprint up the entrance ramp where a championship belt was hanging, instantly transforming the contest into a ladder match governed by standard retrieval rules, making the original cage completely pointless and creating a jarring blend of two gimmicks that did not enhance each other with the final result feeling like creative chaos rather than innovation.
9. The Ambrose Asylum Match (WWE)
The intense rivalry between Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose culminated in the first-ever Asylum Match at WWE Extreme Rules 2016. This was essentially a steel cage match with various weapons, like a straitjacket and barbed wire bat, suspended above the structure. It was a chaotic, grueling brawl, focusing on Ambrose's 'Lunatic Fringe' persona. The shocking climax saw Ambrose empty a bag of thumbtacks onto the mat. He then delivered his Dirty Deeds finishing move, driving Jericho back-first onto the tacks for the pinfall victory. However, the bout was not well received owing to the chaotic presentation and the common sense of not picking up weapons from ringside.
8. The Doomsday Chamber of Blood (TNA 2007)
Introduced in the summer of 2007 under Jim Cornette’s watch, this structure featured a barbed wire topped steel cage designed to prevent escape. But the rule set quickly unraveled into absurdity when a wrestler could only be pinned or forced to submit if he was already bleeding, turning the entire stipulation into a first blood match that did not actually end on blood. This made both the barbed wire and the cage feel unnecessary while wrestlers were forced to injure each other for a condition that barely mattered, resulting in TNA running only a small number of matches before abandoning it entirely.
7. The Steel Asylum (TNA)
This blood red enclosed cage appeared several times in TNA with its final showing taking place on a Monday night episode of Impact at the start of 2010 and was immediately criticized for its barely transparent surface that distorted vision for both fans and performers. But the real stupidity lay in the rules which forced wrestlers to climb the walls, crawl along a sloped ceiling, and escape through a tiny circular hatch at the top, a design that collapsed completely when Homicide reached the exit, failed to physically fit through the opening, and fell back into the ring, sealing the fate of the entire concept.
6. The Bungee Cord Match (GWF)
Staged by Global Wrestling Federation in Dallas in 1992, this terrifying stunt match featured Steven Dayne and Chaz Taylor fighting inside a vertical cage hanging 175 feet above a parking lot with each man strapped to a bungee cord and tasked with throwing his opponent out to his own apparent doom. But the structure was too narrow to allow real wrestling, visibility was miserable under poor lighting, cameras captured almost nothing but swinging feet. Moreover, the match ended anticlimactically when Taylor shoved Dayne out and the cord saved his life, leaving the audience more relieved than entertained.
5. Electrified Six Sides of Steel (TNA)
Marketed as part of TNA’s Lockdown 2007 event which promised a full night of cage matches, the feud between Team 3D and LAX was given an allegedly electrified steel cage designed to shock competitors on contact. But instead of sparks or visual realism, viewers were subjected to actors flopping to the mat under flashing lights and synthetic buzzing effects with no sense of danger at all, prompting TNA to quietly abandon the idea and never attempt it again.
4. The Chamber of Horrors (WCW)
Presented at Halloween Havoc in 1991, this bloated spectacle placed Sting, the Steiner Brothers, and El Gigante against Vader, Scott Hall, Cactus Jack, and Abdullah the Butcher inside a crude version of Hell in a Cell filled with weapons and holiday props. But the win condition completely derailed the match when wrestlers were required to strap an opponent into a descending electric chair and activate a switch meant to represent execution, a moment rendered instantly ridiculous when Abdullah no sold the entire thing and proceeded to attack zombie dressed medics seconds later.
3. The Punjabi Prison (WWE)
Designed in 2006 as a personal attraction for The Great Khali, WWE’s Punjabi Prison match features an inner bamboo cage surrounding the ring, complete with four escape doors. If a door isn’t successfully used within sixty seconds, it locks permanently. Once all doors are sealed, wrestlers must climb out of the inner cage and then scale a much larger outer cage to secure victory. While the match creates a visually impressive spectacle, its slow-paced escapes and lengthy climbs often drag down the action, offering more spectacle than genuine excitement.
2. The Doomsday Cage (WCW)
At WCW Uncensored 1996, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage took part in a chaotic triple-level steel cage match set up in the arena’s back area, alongside eight opponents including Ric Flair and Lex Luger. The bout barely adhered to any rules, with the action spilling between the cage levels and eventually into the ring. The conclusion was just as chaotic: Hogan and Savage relied on power moves, dust, and even frying pans to secure victory, yet Ric Flair bizarrely took the final pin, leaving the ending feeling completely disjointed amid the mayhem.
1. The Kennel from Hell (WWE)
Originating from a bizarre 1999 storyline in which Big Boss Man allegedly killed Al Snow’s dog Pepper and fed it to him, this ill-fated match combined a classic blue steel cage inside Hell in a Cell. Wrestlers were tasked with escaping both cages while real dogs were released between them, supposedly to attack anyone who fell. In reality, the animals wandered aimlessly, relieved themselves at ringside, and refused to engage, leaving Snow and Boss Man to struggle through a match that failed spectacularly in concept, execution, and taste, cementing its reputation as one of the worst steel cage matches in wrestling history.
